Picking Raspberries in the Fog

 

    We have friends in town this week. It's one of the best times to visit the farm because there's a lot going on. One thing that July always brings is red raspberries, and this morning we were picking them in the fog. It was a beautiful morning.

    We pick the raspberries into buckets that we belt around our waists. That's a trick we learned frm the You-pick blueberry farm just down the road. Maybe we'll have our onw blueberry plants some day too.  

    

    We weren't just picking raspberries this morning though. My brother had a bucket of soapy water belted to his waist as well as a picking bucket. The soapy water wasn't for hand washing, it was for Japanese Beetle drowning. The soap kills them quickly.

   
    Japanese Beetles eat our raspberry leaves and do all kinds of damage so we pick them off our plants and kill them whenever we can. They are jumpy in the heat, but in the morning they are lethargic and easy to catch. 

   I think the boys picked more beetles than berries this morning :)

   Oh well -- a country life for me!